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SOUTHEAST ASIA:
Regional Organisation And Global Terrorism
by Ashok Swain
ASEAN and Global Terrorism
Theoretical development and empirical research on regional
organisations and their contributions to conflict management
has been quite intense in recent years. Many scholars
are arguing and showing the importance of regional associations
to reduce conflicts and promote peace in the post Cold
War period. Many have also questioned their significance
and competence in a world increasingly dominated by a
single power and the emergence of new types of conflict
such as global terrorism. How is the regional co-operation
mechanism of Southeast Asia equipped to manage global
terrorism related conflicts and promote regional peace?
Political violence needs motivation as well as opportunities.
Thus, the paper focuses on both: the opportunity side
of the terrorism problem i.e. how does the ASEAN system
manage to contain violent opportunities; and the motivation
and ways of legitimizing terrorist and anti-terrorist
violence. International and regional cooperation against
terrorism has gone through a major evolution this century.
In the second half of the last century, if there was
any cooperation, it was extremely ambivalent and very
much half-hearted. There was monumental disagreement
over the definition of terrorism itself. In most cases,
one nation’s terrorists were another nation’s
freedom fighters. The only remaining super power, which
was used to make a distinction between international
and domestic terrorism changed its track in the later
part of 1990s after experiencing terrorist attacks on
11 September 2001.
This brought a defining change to the attitude of the
international community in dealing with terrorism (domestic
and international). The international community has (almost)
recognised that terrorism is an absolute evil, whatever
its objectives, and is therefore to be combated. The
developing of international cooperation against terrorism
has been at both multilateral and bilateral levels. Regional
organisations in various parts of the world have also
made combating terrorism as one of their principal focus
areas.
The ASEAN and its Conflict Management Strategy
The study of regional conflict and cooperation is gaining
increasing attention in the field of peace research (Wallensteen
2002). The systemic changes brought to global politics
with the end of the Cold War and internationalisation
has heightened this interest (Schultz, Söderbaum & Öjendal
2001). For most of the Cold War era, the study of regional
relations was often dominated by the logic of superpower
competition. The policies of regional states and the
resulting regional outcomes, both conflict and cooperation,
were frequently traced to this inclusive logic.
The independent effects of regional forces and domestic
political dynamics were often ignored. The end of the
Cold War has given regions a life of their own. Scholars
and practitioners have turned their attention to regionspecific
dimensions of regional conflict and cooperation (Swanström
2002). Thus, it is important to explore the regional
pathway Southeast Asian states have undertaken during
and after the Cold War. The Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) encompasses 10 South East Asian
countries and covers 4.5 million square kilometres. Its
strategic position in the Asia-Pacific region, its contribution
to peace and stability in the region and its important
economic strength have made ASEAN a valued partner for
the US and European Union in Asia. ASEAN was established
in 1967 and now includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao
People’s Democratic Republic and Burma/Myanmar
and Cambodia. With a population of some 503 million people,
they make up one of the largest regional markets in the
world. The Member States are among the fastest growing
economies in the world with a combined Gross Domestic
Product of USD 737 billion and the total trade of USD
720 billion.
ASEAN’s main security concern in the 1960s and
1970s was the spread of communism. From the 1980s, ASEAN
focussed on economic issues. In the 1980s, major countries
of the region, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
and Thailand adopted an export oriented and foreign direct
investment-led approach to economic development, until
the financial crisis in mid-1997. The strategy of
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